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Civil War Illustrations

The Floating Battery

soldiers firing guns from the open portion of a floating wooden structure at a distant boat

Caption: The Floating Battery during the Attack on Fort Sumter.

Source: Illustration from New York Illustrated News, April 27, 1861, page [385].

A floating battery is vessel that is heavily armed but has few other characteristics of a warship. The Floating Battery in Charleston was an ironclad vessel, constructed in early 1861 and used in the attack on Fort Sumter.